Genesis

Why "Slice of Life"? Here's the story.

"Slice of Life" was the name of my radio show at college (WRPI 91.5 FM) in the halcyon days of 1984. I took the name from a promotional record sent out by the LA band 45 Grave. The disc itself was called A Tale Of Strange Phenomena. One side contained a sampling of songs, while the other side was a sort of interview with the band, but with the questions omitted. In other words, side 2 was a series of disembodied statements, alternately funny, stupid, surreal...

The station received that disc just as my frustrations with the strictures of its format were reaching a climax. (That's a story for another post.)

So there I was on some Spring afternoon in 1984, impatiently waiting for the end of one of Philip Glass' insomnia cures, when inspiration struck. Or maybe it was a temporary psychosis brought on by the enervating drone of the particular 20-odd minute "piece" I was inflicting on the public at 50K Watts. (Heh. OK, I don't dislike Glass that much, but I do like a good rant.)

Anyway, I simply decided to play something over the Glass instrumental. I put on the talking side of the 45 Grave disc, dropped the needle at random, and turned up the pot on turntable 2. The band started making wacky pronouncements over the "bed" provided by Glass' musical death rattle. It sounded pretty good, so I began dropping the needle at random every few seconds. At some point I also mixed in some dub reggae and other spoken word stuff. A collage was born.

(I'm aware that I had not done anything ground-breaking. I did not invent musique concrete. But for that place and time, what I did was revolutionary.)

The experiment continued as I played the 45 Grave interview backwards by hand. Eventually, I discovered that the phrase "slice of life" sounded a lot like "money, ya know?" when played backwards. I settled into a little scratch groove: slice of life/money, ya know?/sliiiice of liiiiife/m-m-m-money, ya know-ow-ow-ow?/sli-sli-slice.

I kept the experiment going for about 40 minutes. Unheard of for WRPI, I actually got calls praising my show.

After that day, I called my show "Slice of Life" because it sounded good to my ears and I wanted to commemorate the happy accident that was the collision of Philip Glass and 45 Grave. I made some typically post-adolescent angsty posters for the show and stapled them to the campus bulletin boards.

So that's the origin of the phrase as it applies to me. Why did I reuse it as the title for my blog? Perhaps as an acknowledgement of that strange day when I performed a small but definitive act of defiance, when I carved out my identity on the radio waves. A paen to the Law of Unintended Consequences. An homage to an electrically charged moment of self-creation, born of frustration and boredom.

I'd like to sarcastically mention that it's just as likely that I'm recycling the name because I'm too lazy/uninspired/stupid to think of something new. But that's just me pandering to your low expectations of Generation X.

Posted at 12:00 PM | View all replies (4)

Moratorius Moribundus

Metafilter tells me it's "Poem on Your Blog" day, which is as good a reason as any for me to sweep the cobwebs from this forum.

I'm supposed to write about my favorite poem. It just so happens to be one I wrote myself about 15 years ago. Here it is:

Motorcycle Crash

Pavement reaches up to meet skin.
Never realized the ease with which
The skin would open up
To let the pavement in.

Bio of the author: Len Charest is seven feet tall he is, with arms like tree trunks. His eyes are like steel, cold, hard. Has a shock of hair, red like the fires of Hell.

Posted at 11:37 AM | View all replies (2)

Now for Some Content ...

I just revamped SOL's stylesheet and some of the templates. It was more a of learning exercise than anything else, and this post is more of an excuse to ping your aggregator than anything else...

Take a look around. Let me know if anything is broken/ugly.

To do: add threaded comments, open comment auto-expiration, new banner graphic...

Posted at 12:02 PM | View all replies (7)

Blind Idiot God

A trio specializing in hypnotically repetitive thrash and dub excursions through the pineal gland. Recommended: Cyclotron. Good music for doing housework.

Also, the sky fairy responsible for BushCo's occupation of the White House.

Posted at 10:38 PM | View all replies (3)

Reboot

Refresh. Renew. Revisit. Rethink. Rewrite.

Posted at 10:59 PM

Mystical Spider Tongue

I found this while scanning some old email archives. From January, 2000. It's one of those random questionnaires that are perpetually forwarded from person to person across the Internet. Good for a laff and to contrast what I was thinking six years ago (pre-Darby) with my current head space (hint: not much into Law & Order these days).

NAME: Mystical Spider Tongue
SEX:  Yes, please
POINT OF ORIGIN:  A womb
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: A chair
LIVING ARRANGEMENT: Bed, couch, TV, espresso machine
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OUIJA BOARDS? They are Satan's party game
YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW(s): Law & Order
FAVORITE CARTOON QUOTE: "Mmmm, floor pie." (Homer Simpson)
WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?: A mouse
FAVORITE MAGAZINE: Juggs
FAVORITE SMELLS: coffee
WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD: flu symptoms
BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD: orgasm
FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK: "Dead Presidents", "Lone Star"
WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?: "Fuck"
DO YOU GET MOTION SICKNESS? No
ROLLER COASTERS-SCARY OR EXCITING? Exciting, then scary, then exciting
PEN OR PENCIL? Rock crushes pen *and* pencil
HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER? 2
FUTURE SON'S NAME: Zebulon
FUTURE DAUGHTER'S NAME: Athena
FAVORITE FOOD: Crawfish, beer
DO YOU GET ALONG WITH YOUR PARENTS? Yes
CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA: Chocolate
FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR: Butter pecan
CROUTONS OR BACON BITS: Neither, yuck
DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE? Very fast
DO YOU SLEEP WITH STUFFED ANIMALS? No, that would be immoral
STORMS-COOL OR SCARY: Whatever
WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? 1975 Ford Maverick
IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD IT BE? Tie: Jesus Christ or Ashley Judd
FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK: Beer
WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN? Aquarius
WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE POET? Poe
DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? Sometimes
WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE? Tie: stupidity and hypocrisy
IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Master of Reality
IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? the color of love
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? yes
WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM? Spider webs
IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? half-empty due to man's inhumanity to man
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SNAPPLE? "Yo Momma's armpits so hairy, look like she got Buckwheat inna headlock!"
FAVORITE MOVIE: Too many to choose from. Maybe "Blue Velvet".
ARE YOU A LEFTY, RIGHTY, OR AMBIDEXTROUS? Lefty. But I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous...
DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? And the left keys
IF YOU COULD BE ANY GARDENING TOOL WHAT WOULD IT BE? Hoe
WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, digital scanner
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 16
WHAT IS YOUR DREAM CAR? 1966 Pontiac GTO
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Basketaball, wrestling
SAY ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU: Hot babe, sexy voice
PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND: God

Posted at 3:12 PM | View all replies (1)